Pettersen poised to repeat in Taiwan

Yang Mei, Taiwan (SportsNetwork.com) - Defending champion Suzann Pettersen
managed a 1-over-par 73 in difficult scoring conditions on Saturday to take a
4-stroke lead into the final round of the LPGA Taiwan Championship.

Pettersen, the second-ranked player in the world, sits at 6-under-par 210
through 54 holes at Sunrise Golf & Country Club.

"Today was a tough day for me," she admitted. "It was all about hanging in
there and trying to bring it back to where I started."

Azahara Munoz fired a 3-under-par 69 to grab a share of second place at 2-
under 214 alongside Carlota Ciganda and Sun Young Yoo, who both carded even-
par 72s.

Pettersen began the day with a 5-stroke lead, but her comfortable margin
quickly shrunk when she bogeyed three of her first five holes.

"You know, I had a great warmup, felt good," she said. "On the second, I kind
of made a little amateur mistake trying to get too cute on the tee ball and
left myself with a very tough up-and-down. I just couldn't get it going and
made a few errors."

Yoo then birdied the par-5 sixth to pull within a shot, but Pettersen righted
herself from there, notching a birdie at the eighth, then parring four
straight before recording another birdie at the 13th.

That run pushed Pettersen's lead to four and although she stumbled to a bogey
at the 17th, the reigning champ recovered with a birdie at the last to retain
the advantage heading into the final round.

"I could easily have lost it out there today," said Pettersen. "It was -- you
know, some days are easy, some days are not that easy, some of the times you
see everything you're going to do right in front of you. Other times you fall
in-between clubs and are not quite sure and then you start questioning if it's
enough, if you had enough -- if it's going to be too spinning. It's one of
those days where you can be very analytic, and it's all in the conditions to
be analytic. One more day in these conditions."

NOTES: Pettersen has finished in the top seven in seven straight tournaments
and nine of the last 10, including two victories ... She was the only player
in this week's 78-player field to record subpar rounds on each of the
tournament's first two days ... Pettersen is seeking her 14th career LPGA Tour
win.